Buffalo Schools Could Lose State Grant Money | News

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BUFFALO, NY-- The Buffalo School District is losing state school improvement grant money that could have meant millions of dollars to the district.

Tuesday, State Education Commissioner John King called the deadline, "real" and notified districts that he was suspending millions of dollars in grants to several districts, including Buffalo, after local officials missed a deadline to agree on teacher evaluations.

"The deadline is real; the funding is suspended," King said. "The good news is that six districts (Roosevelt, Poughkeepsie, Buffalo, Syracuse, Albany and Rochester) showed real progress toward meeting the requirements for a teacher and principal evaluation system agreed to in their SIG applications. All 10 districts can request a hearing. If these six districts get back to the table immediately to address the shortcomings in their plans, the hearings should go well for them."

King says the districts needed to agree on teacher evaluations with their local teachers unions by Dec. 31 to receive the School Improvement Grant funding.

Interim School Superintendent Amber Dixon released this statement Tuesday evening:

"We will immediately sit down with the Buffalo Teachers Federation (BTF) and the Buffalo Council of School Administrators (BCSA) in order to address the issues in Commissioner King's letter. After review with district counsel, we plan to appeal within 30 days as per State Education Department (SED) guidance."